Students at West Hills High School in Santee use iPhones and iPods to learn a geography lesson. Mike Johnson • Grossmont Union High School District

Caroline Dipping • U-T

Santee

Forget the Me Generation. In the 21st Century, it’s all about the I Generation.

For most teenagers, communication and entertainment are done more often than not through an iPod, iPhone or iPad. Now, thanks to some forward-thinking teachers at West Hills High School, they are learning through these devices, too.

Last year, veteran social science teachers Reuben Hoffman and Dan McDowell pitched to the Grossmont Union High School District the idea of building lessons that allowed students to use their own iPods and smartphones. The district approved the “Bring Your Own Device” program, and in the blink of a text, West Hills added wireless routers to the campus’ infrastructure to aid Internet connectivity, and purchased 20 4th Generation iPod touches for classroom use for students who did not have their own device.

“Information gathering is the number one use,” said Hoffman, who teaches geography/technology and sociology. Beyond research, the devices enable teachers to use Google Groups to facilitate discussions and to get real time feedback to determine if every student is comprehending what is being taught.

“When you randomly call on students in class, you have to make assumptions on whether all the students are grasping knowledge or not,” he said. “Instead of five or six students raising their hands, you have 40 students who are able to participate and comment.

“It gives them an opportunity to have a voice in a more protected environment,” he said.

Hoffman said he and his colleague McDowell are taking project-based lessons they are already teaching and using technology where it fits in.

“We are not designing a whole curriculum around it,” he said.

West Hills High Principal Paul Dautremont well remembers the days when cell phones were not permitted on high school campuses. Then, when shootings and other high profile safety issues began occurring here and around the country, phones were viewed as possible safety tools, he said.

“It used to be something we discouraged and tried to battle,” Dautremont said. “Now, rather than try to fight what is a daily part of our lives, we try to include that and take that interest and that skill or knowledge and use that to teach students what we are trying to teach them.”